Beliefs about knowing in pre-service teacher education students

Individuals who hold dualistic views about the nature of knowledge believe that absolute truths (right/wrong) exist and can be transmitted to an individual from an authority or expert. Individuals with multiplistic beliefs about knowing may concede that as well as absolute truths, there are some things that can not be known with any certainty. Such individuals believe that knowledge comprises both personal opinions and ultimate truths. Relativism refers to the view that knowledge is actively and personally constructed. Absolute truths can no longer exist because truth is considered to be relative to individuals' personal interpretations of experiences.

This study investigated the nature of pre-service teacher education students' epistemological beliefs, or beliefs about knowing. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twenty-nine students at QUT using an interview schedule similar to that used by Belenky et al. The interviews took place at the end of a year long Graduate Diploma in Teacher Education course and were analysed using a descriptive-interpretative approach to data analysis. This means that although categories of beliefs emerged from the data, the descriptions of these categories were influenced by the epistemological beliefs literature.

The interview analysis showed that, as a group, students' beliefs ranged from naive beliefs in the reception of absolute truths to more sophisticated beliefs in the construction of reasoned truths. These categories were similar to those described by Perry and Belenky. However, in the current study, students often described a range of views about knowing and were subsequently allocated to a category on the basis of the focus of their beliefs. For example, an individual described as having relativistic epistemological beliefs might have also acknowledged, in passing, that some knowledge might be absolute and categorical within certain contexts (eg., mathematics).

The categories of beliefs were also analysed in terms of structural aspects using the SOLO (Structure of Learning Outcomes) taxonomy as a guide. This part of the analysis was concerned with investigating how students' responses were organised or structured. As beliefs became more relativistic, an increased differentiation and integration of beliefs was noted. An understanding of the structural dimension of such beliefs may have implications for teaching programs that are designed to facilitate epistemological belief change. Teacher educators may need to encourage students to reflect on a variety of ways of knowing (increased differentiation of beliefs) and then to find ways to integrate those beliefs. This integration may involve finding the big ideas that are common to all of their beliefs about knowing. In this way students might be encouraged explicitly to develop Relational structures that connect their beliefs about knowing.

Current debate is concerned with the question of superiority of relativism as a developmental epistemological ideal. By referring to the structural aspects of such beliefs, it is possible to assert that some ways of knowing are, indeed, more sophisticated than others. That is, a Relational organisation of beliefs allows the individual to be cognisant of multiple perspectives, issues, or topics but also allows them to see how such issues relate to each other. The progression from naive to more sophisticated ways of knowing (and increased differentiation and integration) is therefore a desirable, adaptive process in the context of teaching in Australian primary schools. This progression is especially important in pluralistic educational contexts where interactions with a variety of students, colleagues and parents require flexibility and reasoned interpretations that are characteristic of relativistic thinking.